Dear Diary
by MidnightKnight8
Summary: Hermione Granger and Severus Snape just did not get along; a fact that had been openly admitted on numerous occasions. But what they did not realise was that they were perfect for each other... HGSS if you dont like pairing I advise against reading it...


Chapter One

_25__th__ November, 2001_

_Dear Diary,_

_Yes, I recognize the irony of beginning this entry with that. I would like to begin by mention that for a start, I am far too old to have a diary, so it would be more suitable to call you a journal. But what does it matter anyway; certainly nobody else will be reading this. At twenty-six years of age I should be well past writing down my feelings in a book – but here I am. _

_It has been nearly seven years since I graduated from Hogwarts, and I am only the age I am now due to my use of a time turner for three years. Harry and Ron are both over a year younger than me. I am returning to Hogwarts now as the Healer and matron of the Hospital wing there. Poppy Pomfrey has resigned and it is already nearing three months into the new school year. Albus and Minerva asked me to do this as a favor to them, so I handed in my notice to St. Mungo's today. _

_I have a feeling that they aren't telling me everything, but I am certain that all will be revealed in time. Hopefully until then I shall be able to practice my patience, as it is severely lacking now. Until next I write…_

_Hermione_

Signing her name with a flourish and putting away her quill and ink, Hermione Granger closed her diary, and with it, her first ever entry. It would become a good way to reflect on her life one day. Along with the rest of her belongings, she added the diary, casting a charm on it to deter curious eyes. Satisfied with her work, she put a Hogwarts coat-of-arms on it and the trunk disappeared – presumably to Hogwarts. She had been moving into Madam Pomfrey's old chambers all morning, and that had been the last trunk. All she had left was to Apparate to the gates and walk up to the castle.

It was cloudy as she walked the path up to Hogwarts, and by the time she reached the large oak front doors, the rain was beginning to fall gently onto the ground below. As if they hadn't already received enough rain. She hoped that she had remembered to close all of the windows at her house. She would find out on the weekend when she returned home at any rate. Sighing, she walked through the front doors and straight up to Albus Dumbledore's office.

Once the gargoyle let her pass and carried her up the spiraling staircase to his office, she knocked and was immediately called inside. On entering, she saw Albus perched behind his desk, Minerva in one of the seats over the other side, and to her immense surprise, she saw Severus Snape there also. She quickly sat down in the empty seat over Minerva's other side.

'Sorry I'm late – I had a few things that I had to pack by hand,' Hermione apologized to Albus and Minerva.

'That's quite alright,' Albus said, waving it off. 'Now Severus, I would like you and Hermione to organize together the supplies in the Hospital Wing and to help each other with replacing what we are short on.'

Snape sighed heavily, barely glancing at Hermione. 'Very well Albus, if that is your wish,' he said reluctantly.

'It is,' Albus said firmly.

Severus stood and Hermione with him, and went to the fireplace, taking a pinch of Floo powder and offering the jar to the witch beside him. Hermione, for her part, didn't say a thing and simply went along with the tall, unfriendly wizard. She took some Floo powder and followed Snape's example, calling out her destination and ending up in her new office in the Hospital wing.

'We will begin by taking numbers of what you have and don't have,' Snape said curtly, sweeping across to the cabinet. 'Whatever you are short on I will brew this evening, and if you ever begin to run short on anything, simply let me know and I will have it made and sent up here.'

'Very well Professor,' she said quietly.

He looked at her then, with a blank expression, and then he frowned before turning back to the task of opening the cabinet. 'Well come along, Healer Granger – I do not have all day,' he snapped irritably.

Hermione immediately went to him and took down numbers as he sorted through the potions, marking in red what she believed that they needed more of. After about three hours, they were finally done, and she wordlessly handed him the roll of parchment as he went to the fireplace to Floo. He left for his own office, and she just stared at the fireplace for a long time after he left.

It had been many years since the defeat of Voldemort, yet Snape seemed to be just as severe then as he always had been. Hermione respected him for everything he had done and endured for the sake of Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix. And despite a mistake he had made in the foolishness of his youth, he had given up his whole life to rectify it, and had repaid his debt ten times over. Sighing, she stood and left for her chambers through a concealed door.

Inside she found that all of her things had been unpacked and arranged around the room just as she would have herself. The house elves certainly knew what they were doing, and she was eternally grateful that her misplaced pity for them had not created a rift between them. She saw her diary was sitting on the mantle of the fireplace and took it down, preparing to write a short entry for that night.

_25__th__ November, 2001_

_I have already written today, but I must note down that I am finally at Hogwarts, and everything seems to be going well. My first afternoon here and I already had to face Snape. True, I do respect him, but he is possibly the most horrid man I know. Sometimes I feel like I could hate him just because he is so perfectly nasty and mean. He treated me just like a student! In any case, I shall prove to him soon that I am no longer a child, and that the world does not revolve around him. _

_Hermione_

OOOOO

The first week at Hogwarts had been very tiring for Hermione, as she was not used to a constant flow of injured or ill students coming to her every day. When she went off duty Friday evening before dinner, she decided to take a long bath to soothe her sore muscles and take a little time out to relax. She was there for all of ten minutes before an alarm went off, indicating that a someone had entered the Hospital Wing, and also signal the end of her bath. Groaning, she drained the bath, spelled herself dry, pulled on her under garments, trousers and a blouse, hurrying our of her rooms and charming her hair into a loose braid as she walked.

On entering the Hospital Wing, she realized that the room was in an uproar, and that meant literally, because people were yelling. She pulled her wand from her robes and cast silencing charms on everyone except for the patient, who was sporting an arm that was broken so badly that the bone had pierced his flesh on breaking. She led him over to a bed and sat him down.

"Alright, when I have finished healing this young man's arm, I expect one of you to explain to me just what happened,' Hermione said calmly, examining the break and preparing to heal it.

She used a spell to fix the bone, and seal the sliced flesh, before retrieving a cream to rub on the scar, which faded. 'Right, now I would recommend that you do not do anything strenuous with that arm, and if anything happens, come back to see me immediately,' Hermione said, and then took the silencing charm off the other boys.

'What happened?' she asked shortly.

'It was Michael Fox, Healer Granger,' piped the smallest boy.

Another boy nodded in agreement. 'Fox pushed William down the stairs because we told him to stop lurking around our Common Room entrance,' he added.

Hermione looked at the two boys, remembering that she had seen them at the Gryffindor table. She also noted the blonde boy with his arms crossed and a frown on his face who was standing away from the group around the bed. He was Michael Fox, a Slytherin, who didn't look like a bad boy, but maybe she had misjudged him.

'Why did you do that, Michael?' she asked carefully.

'I didn't mean for him to fall down the stairs – I was trying to push him away,' the boy said, looking at the ground in embarrassment. 'I was waiting outside the common room for my sister, and they told me to leave. I pushed past to get away, but he fell, and I couldn't help it. It was an accident.'

Hermione looked from the group of boys to the boy all by himself. She understood all about being singled out like that; and it was brave of the young Slytherin to have come to the Hospital Wing and owned up to it. 'Considering that this was all an accident, I will let you go without detention,' she said softly. 'But you will loose twenty points for using force.'

He nodded and left the wing without another word, Hermione then turned to the three Gryffindor's. 'As for you three, it was unkind of you to treat your fellow classmate that, way, and as a result, you will each loose five points from Gryffindor,' she said diplomatically. 'Now get on your way.'

The three boys scuttled away, leaving Hermione alone to change the sheets on the bed, as there was now some blood on them. With a flick of her wand, the bed was newly made with fresh sheets, and she smiled at a job well done. She heard clapping from the other side of the Hospital Wing and turned to see Severus Snape standing there with a smirk on his face.

'Well done Healer Granger,' he said sarcastically.

'Professor Snape; what brings you here?' she asked coolly as she brushed past him into her office.

He followed closely and stopped her from opening the door with his hand firmly on it, trapping her outside. 'You took house points from my students, Healer Granger,' he said when she looked up at him. 'You heard it yourself – the boy was guilty of no crimes. Why then did you insist on removing house points?'

'Professor Snape, I will not listen to you telling me how to do my job. I took house points to ensure that the incident did not repeat itself,' she said curtly, removing his hand from the door and glaring at him.

'There are more effective ways of ensuring that,' he growled. 'Give back that house points and give the boy detention instead.'

'I will do no such thing,' she said, opening the door and walking in. 'You might have all the time in the world to supervise detention, but I, however, have no wish to. My decision is final. Good night, Sir.'

And with that, Hermione closed the door in Snape's face. She locked it and wrote a note to Albus, sending it through the floo, saying that she would not be at dinner. After arguing with Snape, she found that she had no wish to see anyone that evening. She would order up a tray from the kitchens. Bypassing her sitting room, she went straight to her bedroom and pulled out her diary to write.

_2__nd__ December, 2001_

_That infuriating man! He has been nothing short of rude and despicable this week! If I thought Snape was a bastard at school, then this is worse. He still treats me like he can boss me around, even though there can be no doubt that I am his colleague now. I mean, what do I have to do to make him treat me fairly? He's pleasant to Minerva and Albus, and at the very least tolerant of all of the other staff – why not me? Sure I was his student – but I haven't been for nearly seven years!!!_

_One day that man is going to be in pain or sick or injured, and when he comes to me for help I am going to make him beg for it. That day shall be a great one. In any case, I am starving so I shall go and order dinner. _

_Hermione_

After shoving down the diary rather unceremoniously, she changed into her comfortable warm cotton pajamas, and settled down in her sitting room with a book, and a glass of red wine before the fire on her couch. She was still fuming. How dare he try to overrule her that way? Tossing her braided hair over her shoulder, she sighed heavily. She was being ridiculous. Why was she even bothering to think about him? If she ignored it, it would most likely annoy him further than if she reacted to his taunting. Decidedly, she got up and took a big mouthful of wine before ordering her dinner from the kitchens using the Floo. She picked up her diary, grabbed her self-inking quill and decided to write a few more words in it to complete her thoughts for the day. After – she did always like to be very thorough.

_P.S. I have officially decided that pretending I am not affected by Snape's insults whilst in his presence. This, however, does not mean that I will extend this to my diary. I am going to be extra thorough in describing my loathing of him from now on, as I shall no longer be admitting annoyance to his face (the smug bastard)._

Satisfied, she gently placed the diary in its place of honor on her nightstand, before returning to the sitting room to find her dinner sitting on the coffee table in front of the fire. She was suddenly glad that her attempts at freeing the House elves during her S.P.E.W. phase had failed. House elves were actually very efficient at their job, and the roast chicken and baked potato sitting on the table before her was just too tempting for her rumbling belly to resist, regardless of who made it.

a/n - I have the next chapter stewing in my mind at the moment and it will hopefully be up some time in the next week. Also, I am working on a companion piece for "Hero" which will be ready in a couple of days I would say. Happy reading!!!


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